75 Meaningful Questions to Ask Your Mom

Her life before you (1–25)

1. What was your mother like as a person, not just as a mom?
2. What was your father like?
3. What was the worst fight in your childhood home?
4. What were you like as a kid?
5. What did you want to be?
6. Who was your first best friend?
7. What's the first heartbreak you remember?
8. What did you wear to your first dance?
9. What's a song from your teenage years that still gets you?
10. What did you fight with your parents about?
11. What was your first job?
12. What did you do with your first paycheck?
13. What did 18 feel like?
14. What did you believe about the world then?
15. Who was the first person who took you seriously?
16. What was the bravest thing you did before you were 25?
17. What's a decision you made then that shaped everything?
18. Who was the love before dad?
19. How did you meet dad?
20. What did you think of him on the first date?
21. When did you know?
22. What did your parents think of him?
23. What was your wedding actually like — not the photo version?
24. What was the first apartment like?
25. What did you not know about marriage?

Becoming a mother (26–50)

26. What did you think being a mother would feel like?
27. What did it actually feel like?
28. What was the day I was born like for you?
29. What's a memory of me as a baby that you've never told me?
30. What was the hardest year of motherhood?
31. What did you wish someone had told you?
32. What did you do when you needed a break and couldn't get one?
33. What did you sacrifice that I never saw?
34. What did you give up that you don't regret?
35. What did you give up that you do regret?
36. What did dad get right as a father?
37. What did he get wrong?
38. What did you fight about most?
39. What kept the marriage together?
40. What's a friend who saved you in those years?
41. What did you love most about our house?
42. What's a Christmas you replay often?
43. What's a Christmas you wish you could redo?
44. What did you fear most about us as kids?
45. What's something I did that hurt you that I never apologized for?
46. What's something I did that made you proudest?
47. What did you teach me on purpose?
48. What did I learn from you that you never meant to teach?
49. What did you wish you had taught me sooner?
50. What's a part of your story you never told me because I was too young?

Reflection and wisdom (51–75)

51. What do you know now that you wish you'd known at 30?
52. What's the best advice your mother gave you?
53. The worst?
54. What's the most important lesson about love?
55. About money?
56. About friendship?
57. About work?
58. What's a regret you've made peace with?
59. What's one you haven't?
60. What's a story about our family I don't know?
61. What do you wish people understood about being your age?
62. When were you happiest?
63. When were you most afraid?
64. What's the kindest thing anyone ever did for you?
65. What's a possession you want a specific person to have?
66. What do you want at your funeral?
67. What do you believe about what comes after?
68. What do you hope is true?
69. What's a song you want played?
70. What's a recipe I should learn from you?
71. What's a piece of your handwriting I should keep?
72. What would you tell your 20-year-old self?
73. What would you tell me when I'm your age?
74. What do you want your grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know about you?
75. What's a question you wish I had asked sooner?

Frequently asked questions